This article is from page 14 of the 2007-05-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
GRAVE concerns about Crusheen Garda Station lying idle have been aired at a national Garda conference. The Crusheen station was closed due to damage in January 2005 and has since been refurbished.
However, a dispute between the owner of the building and the Office of Public Works (OPW) has prevent- ed gardai from gaining access to it, for work.
As a result, Garda Declan Keavey, who is based in Crusheen, is forced to work from Ennis, or from a car.
Clare representatives attending the annual Garda Representative Asso- ciation (GRA) conference last week in Westport, Co. Mayo raised the 1s- sue and received support from their counterparts across the country.
Clare delegate, Garda Tom Keane said the people of Crusheen were forced to suffer because of a dispute which they had no control over.
‘The Garda station has been ready for the past 12 months. It is disgrace- ful that the people of Crusheen do not have a station, an area where the population has increased substantial- ly,” said Garda Keane.
The conference heard calls for the OPW to be removed from all in- volvement in the Garda buildings programme.
The Clare delegates attending the conference raised a number of other
issues Of concern to them.
One of those was the procedure which is currently in place to deal with bullying and harassment. Under the existing procedure, grievances and problems are dealt with inter- nally. Rank and file gardai want this to be an external process.
“It is an internal grievance proce- dure and we feel it is not working,” said Gda Keane, who is the chair- man of the GRA’s Health and Safety sub-committee, which is currently compiling proposals for changes in this area.
He said that gardai were particu- larly concerned that complainants were victimised. Once a complaint had been dealt with, they were often subjected to disciplinary action.
“We are looking for an outside in- dependent body to investigate issues like that. There are a lot of issues. People should be entitled to make complaints and have them treated in- dependently,” he said.
The four Clare gardai attending the conference also called for an inde- pendent review on pay.
“The last commission on pay was back in 1979. We feel that the current system, which is based on concilia- tion and arbitration, does not work as it is too bureaucratic,” said Garda WO aler
He said that gardai will receive a pay increase of two per cent this year, which “isn’t good enough.”